


The Ties That Bind Us

by sister_dear



Series: Cooking With Wild [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Family Bonding, Fluff, Food, Found Family, Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Wind (Linked Universe)-centric, bonding over braiding hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 09:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27348658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_dear/pseuds/sister_dear
Summary: Wild is wrist deep in fish guts when his hair tie breaks. Wind takes the opportunity to tackle him with a hairbrush.
Relationships: Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Series: Cooking With Wild [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947757
Comments: 30
Kudos: 366





	The Ties That Bind Us

Wild is wrist deep in fish guts when his hair tie breaks. Wind knows because Wild immediately starts cursing, loudly enough Wind can hear it over the sword-on-sword clanging of the sparring most of the group is engaged in nearby. Only Legend and Warriors remain with them at the campsite, crouched over one of Legend’s maps.

Wild swipes ineffectively at his hair with his forearms, tossing his head when the long blond strands start to slide forward. He’s not doing a very good job of keeping the ends from trailing through the mess. Wild’s hair is as stubborn and determined to be free as the person it’s attached to. 

Wind folds up the small collection of letters he’d been going over, mentally tucking away the homesickness along with them. He bounds over to Wild’s side. “I can tie it back for you!”

Wild gives him a dubious look. Crouched on the ground with a half-gutted fish in his hands and his hair falling about his shoulders, he looks every inch his namesake. Wind crosses his arms and puffs out his chest. He stares down his nose at his fellow hero. “I’m a big brother you know! Grandma needs help with Aryll sometimes, when her hands hurt too much.” Braiding your own hair is hard. Aryll still doesn’t like to do her own, even though she’s old enough to. She just pulls it into pigtails, but she likes braids. Wind tries not to think too hard about who is doing it for her now that he’s off on another adventure again. 

Wild’s face softens. “Right, Wind. Sorry, I forgot. You can do it if you want.”

“Great! Where’s your brush?”

“Brush? You don’t need to brush it if you’re just going to tie it back.” 

Wind uncrosses his arms so he can put his hands on his hips instead, putting on his sternest face. “I’m the one doing your hair, and I say I need a brush.” 

Wild rolls his eyes. “My bag, the left side. Don’t go snooping!”

“I won’t!” Wind lies. Warriors and Legend lift their heads to give him near identical _looks_ when he starts digging through Wild’s bag. They’re both more along the lines of ‘don’t come crying to me when Wild gets mad’ than ‘don’t do the thing,’ so Wind feels perfectly safe sticking out a guilt-free tongue and doing what he wants.

He only snoops a little. Wild has so many clothes! Wind leaves the journals alone. He does borrow one of the circlets. He needs to keep his own hair out of his eyes, of course. No other reason. The one with the blue gems looks great with his lobster shirt, and the rush of cooling magic is welcome in the muggy, swampy air. Maybe he’ll forget to give it back and see how long it takes Wild to notice. 

“I said no snooping!”

“Fuck you, it’s not my fault your bag’s a mess!” Wind retorts cheerfully. He does refocus on actually finding Wild’s hair things. Unlike his jewelry there’s not much, and what is there is pretty basic. A single brush, a handful of ribbons and ties, and a set of plain hair sticks. The fanciest things he has are some Rito-made hair ornaments. It’s not ideal but Wind can work with this. 

He grabs what he wants and trots back over to Wild who, whoops, has apparently been waiting on him. Wild has a fairly fearsome glower when he wants to. 

“Sorry, sorry.” Wind drops his tools and gathers Wild’s hair up so their cook can continue preparing dinner, careful not to pull too hard. 

“S’fine.” Wild mutters, returning to the task of preparing fish. 

Wild’s hair is very long. Longer than Aryll or Tetra! Hair this length isn't common on the Great Sea; all the wind and salt in the air means it mostly just gets tangled. Wild’s looks to be just as much of a mess as Aryll’s can get. Wind ties a loose ribbon around it to keep it out of Wild’s way and sets to work. 

He starts at the bottom, working his way upwards in sections, moving with the constant shifting of Wild’s back. Aryll is never one for holding still any more than Wind is; it’s second nature to account for the way Wild’s arms and head move as he works. A wave of melancholy rolls over him at the familiar sight of a brush working away at blond hair, the motions of brushing as familiar and unthinking as tying off a sail. Suddenly he can almost smell the sea air.

Wind blinks, and bites his lip, and forces himself to concentrate.

Wild’s hair is worse than Wind thought. There are awful matted tangles everywhere. He knows Wild brushes his hair. He sees him do it, almost every night. Apparently he doesn’t do it very thoroughly, though, because some of these tangles are bad enough Wind has to pick them apart with his fingers. One or two he gives up on, cutting carefully free with the small knife from his left shoe. 

Wild turns his head a little when the knife comes out. Wind made something of a production when he drew it; sneaking knives around people’s backs is rude even when you aren’t traveling with heroes or pirates. “What are you doing, Wind?”

“Getting rid of the tangles! I tried, but these ones just aren’t coming loose. I’m not trimming it, I promise.”

“You don’t need to be that thorough.” 

“Yes I do! It looks like a seagull made a nest in here.”

Legend snickers. Wind brandishes the hairbrush at him like he’s threatening a monster with the Phantom Sword. “I’ll do you next!”

Legend waves his hands, still snickering. “No, no,” he drawls. “Clearly your skills are better spent over there.”

Warriors leans back, tapping the side of a curled finger against his mouth in faux thoughtfulness. “Actually, Legend, he has a point. I’ve seen the disaster you hide under that hat.”

“Hey!”

Wind ignores the two as they descend into familiar squabbling. He pulls off the hair ribbon so he can get the top of Wild’s head, holding the rest of it in place with his hand instead. Fortunately, the top isn’t nearly as bad as the bottom. 

Wild has his fish filleted, skinned, and trimmed into neat, uniform slices by the time Wind is done brushing. The remains are in a covered bowl for later disposal, his hands wiped down and dampened in a small bowl of water. Wild has moved on to forming compact rolls of rice from a large bowl of the stuff that he’d drawn from his slate already cooked. Handy, since the weather is far too warm for a campfire. Wild is lucky Wind likes him so much or he’d totally be plotting ways to take the slate home with him when this latest adventure is done. (He’s maybe entertaining thoughts of how he’d do it anyway, but he’s not actually going to follow through on any of them. Probably. Not permanently.) 

Now. What to do? Wild has more than enough hair for the braided crowns Aryll likes when she wants something especially fancy, but without proper pins or comb Wind isn’t sure he could do it properly. He thinks he’s running out of time anyway; Wild’s food preparations look like they’re rapidly approaching the point of final assembly. 

He’ll have to stick to a simple woven braid for now. Maybe, if Wild likes it enough, he’ll let Wind try again later with something more complex. 

Wind gathers up a section of hair from near Wild's hairline and starts braiding, adding more hair with every pass. He keeps the brush handy for when the long strands want to tangle. Wild’s quick, practiced motions pause again. “What are you doing?”

“Braiding!” 

“Oh. I’ve never tried braiding it before.” Wild sounds a little bewildered. 

“It won’t get as tangled this way,” Wind explains, defending his choice. Wild makes an agreeable noise and goes back to his task.

Wind finishes quickly. As soon as he’s tied it off, Wild wipes his hands clean of rice and reaches up to touch. Wind waits a little nervously for the verdict. Wild traces the line of hair down the back of his skull, then pulls the tail over his shoulder, looking at the woven strands. 

“Here,” Warriors wanders over to offer a small mirror, no bigger than his palm, with a folding lid to protect the glass. The cover is ornate, the kind of thing that would be worth a small fortune back home, and Wind gawks a little at how casually he hands it over. Warriors is too busy shooting a look at Legend as he rejoins him over the map, as if daring him to comment, to notice.

Wild holds the mirror up, his arm fully extended, trying to get the most complete view of what Wind has done. “You’re really good at that, Wind.” 

Relief washes the nerves right out of his system. “Told you!” 

“Yeah, you did.” 

Wild continues running his hand over the lines of the braid. His wistful expression prompts Wind to offer, “I can teach you, if you want.” 

That earns him a small, shy smile. “I- yeah. I’d like that.”

Wind beams. “Aryll likes hers braided into a crown. She never lets me put ribbons in it though.”

Wild’s eyes go a little distant, introspective. Not near as bad as that time by the river, when he looked right through Wind without seeing him, but it still leaves a squirmy feeling in his gut. “Zelda wears hers like that. Braided into a crown, I mean.” 

“Oh.” Wind bites his lip. “I didn’t mean-”

“No, it’s fine,” Wild says quickly. “You really think it would look good?”

Wind hums affirmation, but the sound trails off, distracted. 

He really, really misses his sister. And Grandma, Tetra, the Great Sea in general… He thought doing Wild’s hair for him might make him feel better, and it did, kinda, but now that he’s done he just feels worse. 

Wild studies him a little thoughtfully. He reaches up to tap the central gem on the circlet Wind is still wearing, grabbing his attention. “Here. Want to help me assemble?”

It’s a lifeline. Wind takes it gratefully. “Sure!” He plops down cross legged across the platter from Wild. 

“Like this.” Wind watches as Wild swipes a thin line of horseradish paste along one side of a slice of fish, then sets it on top of one of the rolls of rice. A few quick twists and turns of his fingers presses it into shape, leaving a neat nigiri roll that he sets back down on the platter. 

“Show me again,” Wind demands, taking a swipe of paste and a slice of fish for himself. His efforts aren’t nearly as neat and tidy as Wild’s, and Wild finishes three or four nigiri for every one of Wind’s, but it feels good to be trusted with this. Wild takes his food far more seriously than his hair. 

Legend and Warriors soon leave their map, sensing the imminent arrival of dinner. Warriors cleans up the hair things that Wind left scattered around, threatening Legend with the brush, much to Legend’s annoyance. 

Wind giggles and laughs and genuinely starts to feel a little better as he watches Wild chase the other two off with order to collect the rest of their group. He still misses his home, but he has a family here, too, and he wouldn’t trade them for anything.


End file.
